Scribing in the Snow

My farm is in the throws of our first blizzard of the season! It is very exciting. Everything is beautiful. I took Blu out and was inspired to scribe his name in the snow behind the barn. So, backing, pivoting, trotting, sliding, and walking, we wrote "Blu" in the snow. We started with "u" going forward, then backtracked around the trough of the "u" and trotted the "l." For the "B," we backed up the bottom bump and then went forward for the top bump. Finally, we trotted and pivoted for the stick on the "B."I had to splice photos of each letter because there were not any holes in the barn that had a view that could get the whole thing.

I put him back in his stall to document the name. I brought him back out and we played in the snow. He has been in the barn all morning (by choice, his stall is a run-in), so I knew he would be wanting to do some star-jumping. I was right! He was doing all sorts of contortions and airs above the ground. Again, I slowly shaped what he was doing until he was obedient and attentive. I began to be particular about where he made transitions and I had him do a lot of them. Once he was cantering steadily, we did changes of direction. At first, he was sticky on the direction change he has gotten stuck on before (changing from clockwise to counterclockwise), but I used two parts of the landscape and then he became confident and fluid with them. The first was a pine tree. The second was a hill with a steep drop off. Both caused him to make the decision to change directions and I think he realized I was being quiet while he did all of that puzzle solving. He was spectacularly atheltic.

To finish off our session, we went to the trailer. You know what? When I opened the door, he turned his butt to it and started backing up to it! Today he did not get his foot lifted in because right as we started, the wind really picked up and he wanted to face away from it—and so did I. So, I got him to the point of lifting his foot up to it, then we hustled back to the barn!

It was a very fun day with him. Two hours out in the blizzard. I did not need gloves as long as I kept my hand on the end of the 23' line! However, I forgot my hat! I had frozen locks by the end of the session!

ORI: Blu, 2 hours, 12-12-10, afternoon

Natural Horsewoman Out.